New American Haggadah, from Little Brown edited by Jonathan Safran Foer.

This is a Haggadah that speaks your language. I don't just mean a book written in English, but a book that utilizes a diversity of experiences and opinions besides the traditional interpretations found in the Haggada.

The New American Haggadah is a gathering of Jewish intellectual commentary on freedom and its implications, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer. American Jewish experiences run throughout this Haggada. These include a memoir of a Union soldier celebrating Pesach during the Civil War and pictures explaining the many ways American Jews have enhanced and understood the Pesach concept of freedom.

Foer, a novelist,draws on personal experiences from his own family Seders. In Foer's words "…I wanted a Haggada that would involve a richer engagement with the text and images." Enter the New American Haggadah, which contains a pleasing aesthetic layout, a lucid yet bold translation by Nathan Englander, and a commentary from some of yesteryear's as well as today's most prominent intellectuals. Here you'll find Franz Kafka, Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, among others. Yet such diversity of thought is not laid out like an anthology but woven together within the context of the Haggada.

The New American Haggadah is beautifully designed by the Israeli artist and calligrapher Oded Ezer. There is a continuous timeline by Mia Sara Bruch flowing across the top of the pages. Contemporary songs by Debbie Friedman and Linda Hirschhorn plus engaging riddles will keep your children and adult guests on their toes throughout the Seder. If you want a Haggada that is aesthetic and inspiring, this is the one.

(The Jewish Chronicle Online, http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/60376/american-literary-heavyweights-produce-radical-new-haggadah-0).

This book is available at:
Ludwig Mayer Jerusalem Ltd Israel's First Quality Book Store
Shlomzion HaMalka 4 / POB 1174, Street, Jerusalem 91010, Israel
Tel: 02-625-2628. Fax: 02-623-2640
www.mayerbooks.com, mayerbooks@gmail.com